Health

Plan B Vending Machine at UC Davis 'Doesn't Give Judgmental Looks'
Back in 2015, some University of California, Davis students were trying to buy emergency contraception on a Friday night.

The campus health center had closed for the weekend and the only 24-hour community pharmacy was all out of Plan B. The shipment would come Monday, they said. But as timing is everything — emergency contraception must be used within 72 hours for full efficacy — this was problematic. That's when their friend, then-sophomore Parteek Singh, decided to do something about it. In March, the vending machine he worked tirelessly to provide for students was installed outside the Health and Wellness Center on campus. "Instead of calling it a Plan B vending machine we said, 'let's try calling it a Health and Wellness machine.' Singh, who served as a class senator, campaigned for two years to get the machine installed.
More And More Women Are Choosing To Skip Their Periods. Six years of your life.

Or 2,190 days. That's about how long the average woman will spend having her periods. For some women, that's too many days, too many periods. More women in their 20s and 30s are choosing contraception that may suppress their menstrual cycles, says Dr. Elizabeth Micks, who runs an OB-GYN clinic at the University of Washington in Seattle. With traditional birth control, a woman takes a hormone pill for 21 days to stop her cycle. But Micks says, physiologically this isn't a real period at all. So why have women been having all these "fake" periods for decades? One of the doctors who helped invent the pill was Catholic. But the Catholic church never came around to the pill. Today women have many options if they want to try to suppress their cycles. Use of the IUD and implant has risen nearly fivefold in the past decade, a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.

But none of these methods are a guarantee for getting rid of periods altogether.
How Menstrual Cups Are Changing Lives in East Africa
Women around the world consistently face unique, gender-specific barriers when it comes to staying safe and healthy.

Women are at higher risk for contracting HIV/AIDS, malaria, pneumonia, as well as sexual assault and related complications. Many of these issues are beyond our control, and linked to deep-rooted cultural practices that would take decades to alter. However, there are some issues that can be addressed, and have surprisingly simple solutions with remarkably impactful outcomes.

Menstruation is a huge barrier faced by women around the world, and improper management and hygiene practices often lead to serious health concerns, as well as harmful social practices. In Kenya, the average cost of a package of sanitary pads is 75KSH -- approximately $1 CAD.
How Long Can You Wait to Have a Baby? - Jean Twenge. In the tentative, post-9/11 spring of 2002, I was, at 30, in the midst of extricating myself from my first marriage.

My husband and I had met in graduate school but couldn’t find two academic jobs in the same place, so we spent the three years of our marriage living in different states. After I accepted a tenure-track position in California and he turned down a postdoctoral research position nearby—the job wasn’t good enough, he said—it seemed clear that our living situation was not going to change.
The First 12 Seconds Of This Video Should END The Anti-Birth-Control Argument. Fucking Yiiikes, More Men Are Sabotaging Their Partners' Birth Control. Gonna over share here a bit but this totally happened to me. I don't have any proof, mind you, but I was dating a borderline abusive partner who consistently expressed interest in my having his child until magically, despite using condoms, one day I was pregnant. This motherfucker wanted me to keep this child despite proving in innumerable instances how incapable of fatherhood he was.

I kept having foreshadows of me being stuck at dead end jobs to care for a son that looks remarkably like the asshole that disappeared from our life, or worse: actually having to deal with him for the rest of ever. Needless to say I took care of it, and I still get texts from him 9+ months later about how traumatic it was that I killed his child. Seriously, fuck you dude.
Having an Abortion When No One Called Me a Slut. No Controversy - How Have Contraceptives Changed Your Life. Giving women in developing countries access to family planning information and contraceptives is transformative.

It not only allows women and girls the opportunity to lead healthier, more productive lives but it’s one of the best investments a country can make in its future. Access to family planning information and contraceptives can change lives. Every woman and girl deserves the chance to determine her own future. Melinda Gates The day I left my parents’ home to start my career at Microsoft, they told me something I’ll never forget. In fact, I wanted to have a career and have a family—when I was ready. Silper Agandi - Kenya.